WFSA Current News - September 2002

September 27, 2002

  Switzerland reconsiders gun laws
            In a display that is in keeping with present trends, there are now calls in Switzerland to restrict guns, following the multiple shooting murders of fourteen people in Zug last year. Political pressure is being exerted to restrict access to firearms of certain types. At the same time, there is no suggestion of solid research showing that the kinds of restrictions proposed would achieve the desired end of increased public safety. With roughly half a million Swiss homes already having a military rifle stored in them, and with rifle ranges being located right throughout the nation outside towns large and small, it is not made clear how proposed restrictions would decrease the likelihood of already-rare violent crime.
            Paul Günter, who is a Social Democrat and a member of the parliamentary committee on security affairs, believes Swiss soldiers should be forbidden to take their guns home when they complete their involvement with army service. The killings in Zug were carried out with an army-style rifle. Presumably Günter believes the murders would not have been possible if a law had been in place technically forbidding the murderer access to this particular firearm. “This sort of rifle will be restricted in future,” Günter told swissinfo, the news outlet which ran the story.
            Pro Tell, the association of lawful gun owners, pointed out that the Swiss community is awash with guns, and always has been, in view of the longstanding tradition of men above twenty years of age being required to do military service.
            The matter is open for public discussion until the end of this year.

             The article is available at: http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=111&sid=1363061

September 9, 2002

Japan calls for small arms conference
            According to a report from the Kyodo News Service today, Japan has drafted a further resolution concerning the July, 2001, UN call for elimination of the illegal arms trade. The Japanese government wants the UN to convene in July or September, 2003, in either Geneva or New York. The aim is to produce an international treaty on small arms.
            The implications for the private ownership of firearms are extensive.

September 12, 2002

UN call for reduction in weapon numbers
            Delegates to the annual United Nations Non-Governmental Organizations conference called for greater empowerment of women in peace-keeping, more employment for those departing areas or conditions of war, and a diminution of nationalism.
            Associated Press today ran a story by Vanessa Arrington, leading with this line: “Peace will remain elusive as long as weapons pervade the world’s nations, especially those recuperating from bloody internal wars, officials told delegates at a U.N. conference.”
            The article was underpinned by a quotation from Jayantha Dhanapala, the U.N. Under-Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs, who said that the world currently has 30,000 nuclear warheads. Amid calls for redirecting of worldwide spending away from arms and into areas such as public health, there was reference to the overall numbers of arms. Data were quoted from the recent announcement by the Small Arms Survey to the effect that there are currently more than 639 million small arms in the world, and reference was made to the size of the world’s “war machine”.
            There is a danger that this number could become part of an increasingly standard implication that all firearm ownership is malevolent. In this article there was no mention of the fact that 59.2% of these same arms, according to the same report by the Small Arms Survey, are also legally owned by civilians, and only 0.2% of them are deemed to be held by “insurgents”.

September 7, 2002

Checkpoints necessary in London
            English Police Commander Brian Moore of Lambeth in London was reported by The Independent yesterday as releasing details of a plan to put up roadblocks on the city’s streets. The rates of drug- and gun-related crime have caused such concern that the measure has been deemed necessary.
            Because the movement of drugs, especially cocaine, is gang-related, the checkpoints will be manned by armed police. Measures of this sort have in the past been only occasionally adopted in England, for protection against terrorism.

September 5, 2002

March for Threatened Outdoor Pursuits            
            The Liberty and Livelihood March is to be held in London on September 22, organized by the Countryside Alliance. British MP Kate Hoey spoke to a crowd in London on September 4, and said: "Tonight we are urging all Londoners who believe not only in the customs, traditions and livelihoods of rural Britain, but also in the democratic rights of minority groups, to march with us on 22nd September".
            Kate Hoey spoke at the Annual General Meeting of the WFSA in Nuremberg last March. At the time she pointed out the anomalies in current British laws against handguns. She has proved also once again to be a popular speaker who is aware of the danger to outdoor pursuits in general, including both fox hunting to hounds and game shooting.
            A series of hearings will be held on fox hunting over September 9-11, allowing the various sides of the debate to appear within Parliament House, under the chairmanship of Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael. The government appears bent on pushing ahead with bans on the hunting of foxes, but is finding itself continually embarrassed by the power of the opposition to its plans from what it would like to paint as an eccentric minority. On September 7, Countryside Alliance Chairman John Jackson gave an interview to The Guardian in which he warned of the dangers to the democratic process if the bans go ahead despite the weight of the argument against them. Mr Jackson suggested only personal prejudices of anti-hunting MPs would be likely to defeat the weight of argument from numerous experts called to the inquiry.
            The Countryside Alliance web page continues to report on events at http://www.countryside-alliance.org . There is also a permanent telephone number (+44 20 7840 9299) to handle inquiries about the current position. Over 140,000 people have already registered to march in defence of the right to carry on with their way of life, and a survey in Country Life indicated 63 per cent of fox hunters claim they would risk imprisonment and defy bans.